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So we’re in the process of extending our kitchen following a house extension - DIY kitchens units already in so we’re just adding some more. This allows more space for the cooker and we’d like to put in a range rather than 2 ovens.
Our particular use case is family of 6, lots of entertaining, a roast most Sundays, Pizza night on a Saturday and if the kids have their pals round that can be a dozen pizzas and of course xmas and special occasions are massive. My partner is an awesome cook, everything is from scratch and she can seemingly keep on top of multiple things cooking at once (my brain tops out at 2 things on the hob and ill probably burn the garlic bread in the oven)
Our current single Neff just doesn't have sufficient capacity and whilst we’ve considered just having a second one alongside, we’ve eliminated that on aesthetic grounds in favour of the range
The range will go in a straight run of units and we’ve got plenty of wiggle room either end so whilst I’ve allocated 100cm to this, I could just as easily make it 120cm.
Oh, and absolute preference is for gas and not induction - our kitchen takes an absolute pounding and when my partner occasionally uses the kitchen in my parents house, she’s terrified of damaging the very sleek and impressively effective induction hob.
So - im looking for recommendations of what to buy, where to buy it and what to look out for. Budget isn’t especially important, naturally I don’t want to spend more than is sensible, but I certainly don’t want to end up with something rubbish because I cheaped out. I guess im looking for the Specialized Stumpjumper of range cookers. We’ve been into John Lewis over the weekend but the guy in there just read us the oven litres off the ticket and counted oven doors so I’m not convinced he knew anything!! From what we could see, it looks like Bellings are the Apollos and that perhaps Bertazzoni are the Santa Cruz’s?
We've got a 6 ring Smeg. One of the gas rings gave up soon after purchase and a second is on the way out ( just turns itself off after a while)
There's not actually room on the top to fit more than 4 or so pans at once.
The fan oven makes a huge racket.
Defo get one huge oven rather than a s normal one and a stupid pointless narrow one that is too small to fit any dishes of any size in
But it's better than the Rangemaster we had before
We have a 1m Britannia with a main multi-function oven, grill, rotisserie oven and six gas rings (two of which are wok burners). We also have a hotplate for doing big fry-ups etc. We got it for almost half-price from an outlet store because the side was damaged (but you can't see it as the kitchen cupboards butt-up anyway. Apart from a couple of oven lights and one oven element, it's been pretty much faultless in the ten years we have had it.
We have a Nexus Rangemaster, 120cm, dual fuel. Hob has 5 gas burners-one high, two standard, one simmer and one wok ring, plus a griddle plate. Two ovens, fan and conventional. Bizarrrely, the conventional oven has a timing function and the fan oven doesn't, which is a bit of a disappointment. It also has a grill oven, and a bread- proving drawer. It suits me and Mrs Scape down to the ground, as we often entertain, and have family dinners of 6 to 8 quite often. I hate cooking over an electric hob of any description, so the dual fuel system is ideal.
I don't get it. Ovens are better to use at worktop height - you can see whats going on in them, and you don't have to bend down to put stuff in or remove it. We've got two side by side. (was going to be two full size but ended up being one full and one with a warming drawer below. If we're cooking for a load of people it all gets used).
Similarly, induction is just better than gas - more power, more controllable (completely reliable simmer), easier to clean and healthier to boot - you'd not be allowed an unvented gas heater in your house, but you have a hob? It's an antiquated way to cook.
Our induction has been in use 10 years. It's picked up some scratches and I put a small chip in the edge the other week when a glass bottle fell against it. But the glass is replaceable if need be.
Plus a freestanding cooker has gaps around the side, bottom and back that you can't access to clean.
This allows more space for the cooker and we’d like to put in a range rather than 2 ovens.
Interesting.
When we moved here 23 years ago we put a new kitchen in including a Britannia range with gas hobs. We extended the kitchen again on 2018 and changed to a pair of single ovens and a 90cm (?) induction hob.
There's absolutely zero chance I will ever go back to a) a range or b) gas hobs.
Reasons:
- The range was open underneath and collected dust, dirt, tennis balls [dogs], etc
- The gas hobs never went low enough for a proper simmer (and now I realise that you're breathing in burnt gas emissions while cooking)
- The pan stands got covered in grease and where an utter PITA to clean
- To clean the hob you had to remove the pan stands
- The ovens were a bit crap
The induction hob we have now is cleaner, faster and way more controllable, the ovens are pyrolytic and as such as incredibly easy to keep clean and the whole setup just looks nicer (to me).
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fhA66dxsXKCtWA8k7
I've still got the old range cooker in the barn and you can have it for free!
she’s terrified of damaging the very sleek and impressively effective induction hob
Then take more care! 😉
We have a huge Everhot 150i which was in the house when we bought it. It looks absolutely fantastic and really fits in with the cottage aesthetic of our 200 y/o house. It is cosy and welcoming in the winter as it really warms the kitchen. It has three ovens plus a warming oven, two hot plates and 3 induction rings. A new replacement would cost £14,500. However....
It's a pile of poo and I'll be glad to see the back of it when we move in the next year or two. If it wasn't for the the fact it would be too narrow to fill the gap and would require a big kitchen remodelling, I'd swap it for a bog standard oven from Currys or the like tomorrow.
It has to be on all the time, otherwise condensation rusts the cast iron innards. So it uses shit loads of electricity and makes the open plan kitchen/living room too hot in the summer. If you use more than one oven at once, the temperature plummets and everything takes three times as long to cook as it would in a cheap oven. It has a thermostat and digital display but the set temperature displayed bears no relation to reality. It's a right PITA to clean. The only good thing about it is the induction hob. I could go on, but it just winds me up. Still, it'll look great when we show potential buyers around. I just hope none of them have read this thread!
But it's better than the Rangemaster we had before
Anything is better than a ****ing Rangemaster
Used to have a 120cm Range master with 4 gas rings, gas wok burner and an electric hot plate. The hot plate never worked (could never be bothered to get it fixed). Gas rings wouldn't go low enough to simmer. Weirdest thing was that the 2 60cm ovens are actually smaller than 60cm so the baking trays which fitted in the 60cm oven in the previous house didn't fit in either of the range ovens.
We have a 1m Britannia with a main multi-function oven, grill, rotisserie oven and six gas rings (two of which are wok burners). We also have a hotplate for doing big fry-ups etc. We got it for almost half-price from an outlet store because the side was damaged (but you can't see it as the kitchen cupboards butt-up anyway. Apart from a couple of oven lights and one oven element, it's been pretty much faultless in the ten years we have had it.
interesting - could you share the details of the outlet assuming they're still going??
Anything is better than a ****ing Rangemaster
are rangemaster a bit pony then? I kinda thought you guys were going to tell me they were the sensible middle ground so im glad I asked
our rangemaster is really shit. very poorly made for how much it cost. looks OK i guess. i hate it. i want an easy wipe-clean induction thing.
We have a Neff double oven and matching microwave above in floor to ceiling unit. Looks good. Saves the counter footprint sticking the microwave anywhere else. You can then have the hob you want elsewhere.
It is night and day better than the orginal oven under the worktop hob. Easy to check the top oven without bending down etc.
The cupboard to the left is a full height pull out larder.
I thought it was a bit of a gimmick. Mrs IRC wanted it. It is actually quite useful.
We have a Everhot .....
It has to be on all the time, otherwise condensation rusts the cast iron innards. So it uses shit loads of electricity and makes the open plan kitchen/living room too hot in the summer. If you use more than one oven at once, the temperature plummets and everything takes three times as long to cook as it would in a cheap oven. It has a thermostat and digital display but the set temperature displayed bears no relation to reality. It's a right PITA to clean.
Uncle/aunt had an Aga in their converted barns. Build a new house c15 years ago and installed an Everhot. All the issues you raise (though theirs wasn't induction - I think it had Aga style hotplates on top?).
They replaced it with a Bertazzoni of some sort. Looks like this
The range was open underneath and collected dust, dirt, tennis balls [dogs], etc
The gas hobs never went low enough for a proper simmer (and now I realise that you're breathing in burnt gas emissions while cooking)
The pan stands got covered in grease and where an utter PITA to clean
To clean the hob you had to remove the pan stands
which has all those problems but also neither oven seems as wide as a regular 60cm unit, the one on the right is a particularly useless size. Plus the temperature control on them is hopeless and the temp gauge seems to bear no relation to the actual temperature.
Current house had a rangemaster when we moved in. What a pile of absolute dog dung. Prehistoric design, Victorian implementation, built in 2014. After the flood I took great pleasure in ripping it out and smashing it to pieces with a sledge hammer. Nobody should have to endure such a device. 70kg of scrap iron and badly implemented wiring worthy of a B&Q garden light. 8 short circuits connected by an uncleanable glass panel.
I grew up on holiday with my relatives in Ireland, the stench of peat smoke wafting though the farmhouses from the always on aga. When Ireland got rich and my family built houses for themselves that didn't need constant heat, the agas went to the scrappies. Universally replaced by proper modern ovens and gas or induction hobs.
I am surprised by the anti-Rangemaster sentiment.
We have a Rangemaster Nexus Induction, had it for about 5 years and we love it. Don't know what else to say. I'd buy another in a flash, if I ever had to, but it seems well built to me. No better built than it needs to be, but up to the job in an industrial kind of way and with nice looks too. I love the fact the induction hob is controlled with proper physical dials, not a touch-screen.
We have a Rangemaster Induction. It's been pretty good on the whole. In fact we could sell it as only half used as the left oven has never been used. 🤣
The Rangemaster American Freezer on the other hand was a pile of shit. The ice maker constantly froze over and needed to be forced out to get rid of the ice. The ice and water dispenser rusted just outside the warranty period and they didn't want to know but would have been happy to charge us for a full door replacement. The freezer was too small to hold very much but looked massive from the outside.
I was happy to see the back of it.
(loving the photo-bomb in irc's post)
We’ve had a rangemaster Elise induction for 1.5 years. Can’t comment on its longevity but I really like it.
We have a newish 110cm wide Belling, bought in late January (they we're conveniently out of stock when the sales were on). It needed to be that size to replace the one that was here when we moved in that had one gas, one electric oven, only 4 rings and a hot plate that would ping the electric fuse if you turned it on. Usedit for a few years but the last straw was that is was too old to get the new thermostat it needed.
The Belling is fine. It's shiny black steel and glass front with black cast iron pan supports. It has 7 rings (one wok burner) that work the same as any gas cooker. One fan and one normal electric oven, a grill, and a small cupboard for roasting tins.
To make it perfect I would prefer 2 small size rings and 2 medium rather than 1 small and 3 medium and 2 fan ovens.
It is half the price of a Range master or Smeg and unless you want the specific looks or need 2 fan ovens then it's a lot of extra money.
Also don't leave buying until late autumn as all the prices go up in late October and you need to wait until January to be able to afford it.
Interesting thread. I have a Rangemaster Elise 100cm gas/ electric, bought when redoing the kitchen; and am gradually coming to the realisation that it ain't all that. The build quality is not great - doors flex, and are nothing like as solid as you'd think; the function isn't wonderful either - rings will generally go out rather than sizzle, and the split oven design means you have 2 ovens that aren't quite as big as you think they are. Even though it cost something like £4k, I'm starting to wonder about whether I can replace it with something better.
My last two stoves before this (in N America) were both Wolfs. Both developed small faults as soon as they came out of warranty, but beyond that they were great - solid, worked exactly how they were supposed to, etc. They're not sold in Europe, and I'm struggling to work out what would be better than the Rangemaster in terms of build, design and function.
This is one of the issue's with a range.... once you've put one in then you're kinda stuck with that format unless you make some bigger changes to the kitchen - especially if you pick a more 'niche' width.I have a Rangemaster Elise 100cm gas/ electric, bought when redoing the kitchen; and am gradually coming to the realisation that it ain't all that.
And if something goes wrong with either oven or the hob then you have to try and get it fixed (not always easy/successful) or replace the whole range.
Separates allow you easily swap out an oven or the hob if you either fancy a change/upgrade or one of them has a terminal failure.
My last two stoves before this (in N America) were both Wolfs. Both developed small faults as soon as they came out of warranty, but beyond that they were great - solid, worked exactly how they were supposed to, etc. They're not sold in Europe, and I'm struggling to work out what would be better than the Rangemaster in terms of build, design and function.
https://subzero-wolf.co.uk/wolf-cooking/range-cookers
The last house we lived in had a Leisure Rangemaster which was from around 2000, so nearly 20 years old when we moved out. It was a traditional looking range but gas hobs with electric oven and it was totally, 100% reliable and I really liked it. Leisure has since been sold to Beko so don't know what they're like now.
We now live in a house with a Tecnik range, made by Rangemaster for Moben. It's from 2005 and is great. It has a good range of hob sizes, though it also has a plate warmer I'd gladly forgo for another hob. It's well built and nothing has ever gone wrong with it. It's a fan oven on one side which is great for day to day cooking and a regular oven on the other which is especially good for bread.
One thing we miss from the Leisure was that it had a glass cover that folded down over the burners, effectively giving you additional worktop space when you weren't using it. As a range takes up so much counter space I would recommend finding one that has that.
As for actual ranges or induction hobs, my parents moved into a house with an Aga and hated it. They're a pit of money to powered, it kept breaking and if you care properly about cooking there is zero control. They were delighted to see the back of it and now have two ovens, one on top of the other, and that's a nice set up if you're older and can't bend down. They then have a Bosch induction hob and it's so good to cook on - way better than my gas hobs. There's so much control, and you can turn the whole hob into a heated surface so you can properly cook with massive pans, or rectangular dishes, if you need to. Conversely you can also cook properly with tiny pans too. They are better.
If you have the space and want to do a lot of cooking, two single ovens side by side with a hob on top is much more useful than a range. We've had both, and the ovens on the range will be 'normal shaped but smaller' than a normal oven and/or 'odd-shaped', like tall and thin, so can actually be a bit of a PITA of your cooking 'big' things and getting cookware that fits.
This gives an idea, this was the setup we did at our old place (this is obviously not finished, imagine the top is a six ring gas hob') 
We have a 120cm Stoves duel fuel. We rarely use the smaller oven and I would prefer this to be a Air Fryer. The biggest advantage for me is having multiple gas rings and lots of space on the top for putting other hot stuff. In effect, 120cm of hot stuff storage. It makes it a lot easier when taking trays out of the oven to have space to put them straight down without having to clear worktop space and find trivets.
Got a 20+ year old Rangemaster Elan 90 with five gas rings. Can't fault it.
Full disclosure - we have a range at our current place, we got a Stoves one to replace the oil-burning Rayburn that we replaced with an external oil boiler.
It's fine, it's got an induction top, which is just as good as gas, and a gazillion oven functions, the majority of which are never used. We've used the 'tall thin' oven once in five years.
are rangemaster a bit pony then? I kinda thought you guys were going to tell me they were the sensible middle ground so im glad I asked
Ours has been shocking. It's a good job I'm a handy chap to keep re-adjusting and reassembling the doors, replace the oven controllers, order and fit new knobs when they fall in half. The grill tray chrome was so thin it fell off in the dishwasher. The grill controller is currently faulty (the neon wont go out after it randomly went bang one day when it wasn't in use) but I'm not going to fix it. I cannot wait to see the back of it.
And as for the noise! I visited a friend who had a Neff and I asked if it didn't have a fan? It did and it was on so it doesnt need to sound like and industrial extractor.
The rest of our appliances are Bosch and LG - I cannot be more satisfied.
We've recently gone from a duel fuel Rangemaster 110, bought in around 2001, to builtin ovens (Siemens ovens, Bosch hob).
The Rangemaster was fine, it never broke (but apparently reliability went downhill after they were bought a few years ago by some hedge fund).
Induction is so much nicer than gas - loads easier to clean, and gets hotter, faster than the gas hob ever could. Plus not breathing in smoke particles is nice (and less condensation).
The Siemens oven is a lot faster to heat up - with the Rangemaster it would take a good ten or fifteen minutes to come up to temperature in the fan oven; time for a nice cup of tea, whereas the Siemens is roasting hot in half the time.
Someone mentioned earlier all the stuff that ends up lost behind a range oven - it's nice not having slowly dessicating old bits of food hanging around anymore. Probably the mice don't appreciate that.
tl;dr: Rangemaster was fine, but would not go back.
My experience?
big, fairly expensive, and not very efficient. Had a 100cm, 6-ring, 2-oven Smeg for many years.
have used various other ranges and Rayburns and Agas too. Same kind of description for them.
they’re all very stylish but for actual cooking I’d now always go for separate devices. There’s more chance they are designed for their specific purpose and will do it with fewer compromises. You also get more options of where to place them for ‘optimal’ efficiency of space or ergonomics.
I’d also never go back to gas after [good] induction. Potentially explosive, worse control, creates road-like pollutants in the kitchen, and produces a surprising amount of moisture while burning. Plus, something of a pain to clean.
I’ve not read all the posts but can see no point of any range type cooker in a modern house unless keeping up with the Jones’s is a priority
They are expensive for what you get and you will curse it in the summer when it’s adding to the melting pot of heat in the house
2 single steam ovens (of whatever price you can afford) at chest height , none of this bending down rubbish
Separate hob as big as you can physically get
We had a 1200 wide one many years ago. It was 5 burner (middle one could be wok or a long line of burners) and it had two overs, one smaller with a steam and rotisserie function in it. We were in the process of planning a kitchen and it turned out that when we went to go explore a local shop with cosmetic seconds/refurb kitchen equipment for a normal oven and hob they had this monster with a big dent on the side but the same price...so a quick check and it worked out it was a perfect fit for the old fireplace that there was in the kitchen. I cannot even remember what brand it was, but it was great!
We really liked it - basically used a single oven and a couple of burners most of the time, but the day we hosted a big Sunday lunch or family over, it was brilliant.
I’ve not read all the posts but can see no point of any range type cooker in a modern house unless keeping up with the Jones’s is a priority
"Didn't read the thread, can't understand why anyone would want one of these" 🙄
Not all kitchens really suit built-in chest-high ovens - for example some kitchens don't have much chest-high space, and others just aren't intended to look all that modern with Bosch stainless steel built-ins (or similar - and let's not forget Bosch products ain't all that now).
The issue really is that while the idea of a range cooker may be great, there don't seem to be any really good ones these days. Even the long-established brands with extensive history seem to have been flogged, and their focus now is on selling cheaper things at higher margins, rather than good-quality products that do exactly what they're supposed to very well, and don't break.
I’ve not read all the posts but can see no point of any range type cooker in a modern house.
Not everyone lives in a modern house. Although to be fair in my small sample size of 1, there isn't a lot of point to them in an old house either.
Op said they are serious about cooking
An aga is not the answer for that whether you live in a 300 yr old house or a contemporary modern house
No-one is talking about Agas, they're talking about electric 'range-style' cookers. But thanks for your input.
Hiya,
Have had Three range cookers, in two different houses. Two of them I had fitted, Stoves, one of them was a Kenwood. The Kenwood was OK and came with this house. The build quality of the Stoves, is a level above and I've cooked with many ovens, nothing beats the Stoves to be honest. They are expensive for sure, but you do get what you pay for tbh.
BR
JeZ
We have a stupidly expensive Baumatic gas range cooker that came with the house, pretty sure it was brand new because it looked new and worked like new, and that did not last long......
At least half of the piezo lighter switches in the dials don't work (so press and turn, then press another at random until you find one that still sparks (they all spark at once regardless which is pressed).
The ovens are just ****, everything burns from the bottom up.
The FFD in the 'mini' oven has never worked. It takes multiple attempts to get it lit, and then it will just go out when the thermostat turns the flame down. So you have to check it ever 20min or so and go through the 5 minute ritual of trying to light it.
The grill is woefully underpowered (it's fed from a 13A supply).
All the printed markings faded/burnt off pretty quickly because the hot air from the oven vens through the tripple galzing void straight onto the dials. And then it got even worse because despite being new-ish Baumatic no longer seems to sell correctly sized door seals for it anymore and the ones that do claim to fit, leak.
The final straw is the hinges on the door just broke, so man-maths says it's not worth replacing and we're going to rip half the house down, build and extension and then get an electric oven and induction hob. I figure that medium to long term the writing is on the wall for gas heating so may as well start transitioning off it. There'd be no point having to pay a standing charge just for a gas hob even if it is in some ways better.
Having 5 burners (including a seriously impressive wok burner) is great and sometimes useful. But I don't really see the need for the extra oven these days when everyone has an air fryer.
Whenever I've looked at them, they always come across as a very expensive, slightly bigger oven hob combo that you have to design your entire kitchen around. Two ovens with a decent induction hob as suggested above seems to me like a far neater solution.
At least OP isn't considering an AGA/Rayburn money burner. That gives you less oven and hob space, for four times the price and requires its own dedicated power station to run.
Ohh, and the advantage of a range cooker having n+1 hobs (where n is the number you're ever likely to need) is easily trumped by how cheap standalone induction hobs are, you could have several spare hobs for Christmas just sat in a cupboard when you don't need them.
2 single steam ovens (of whatever price you can afford) at chest height , none of this bending down rubbish
Separate hob as big as you can physically get
This!
Steam ovens rock! And the only change I’d make is induction hob.
"Defo get one huge oven rather than a s normal one and a stupid pointless narrow one that is too small to fit any dishes of any size in"
Would disagree with that, we have a range with a normal one and the narrow one and we use both a lot. We need smaller dishes for the narrow one but not tiny dishes. Wouldn't be without two ovens
We also have a Falcon range which is Belgian for Rangemaster
If doing it again I would have separate built in ovens and induction hob rather than the range. It's just more flexible when you come to change things
I don't get it. Ovens are better to use at worktop height
We put a range in 20 years ago. If I was doing it again I'd put two ovens at worktop height and a hob alongside